WTF? A guy wants a degree on his resume to enhance his employment opportunities and you suggest that he blow his head off? What the hell's the matter with you?
"Perk" is defined as 'an advantage or benefit following from a job or situation.'
Which pretty much describes the OP's intent. Just because he is interested in the practical outcomes of having a degree rather than worshiping at the Holy Altar of the Ivory Tower you think he should end his life?

I am curious, how do you think the police should be able to look for people drink driving?

Should they need to see you do something legal but seriously stupid like weaving between the lanes of the highway like a jackass before they can breathalyse you? Or should you actually need to break the law by running a red light? Or should they only be able to breath test people who crash?

Any of these would likely be "probable cause" under U.S. law to make a traffic stop. Under U.S. law an officer cannot detain you without either a warrant or probable cause. (At least, not in theory.)

CowboyRobot writes: The Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment is developing a plan to reuse waste heat from nearby data centers and other sources to power a so-called “district heating” system that would deliver sustainable hot water and heat to buildings in the city’s South Lake Union and Denny Triangle neighborhoods. The city is working with tenants, local heating utility Seattle Steam, and Corix, a Vancouver, Ontario-based provider of sustainable utility infrastructures, on the plan. With the abundance of large sewer lines and the presence of a local steam system — two other sources of waste heat — the building blocks are in place to bring the plan to fruition. In the meantime, Corix is in the process of performing an analysis of the proposed system’s viability, both in terms of cost and its ability to be priced competitively, and the city’s staff is working to build interest among all the potential stakeholders. Among the buildings that could potentially be heated by the system would be the new headquarters complex Amazon hopes to build in the South Lake Union area.Link to Original Source

I think you misunderstand the purpose of the Pi. The Pi was developed to be an educational tool for high-school aged kids. The fact that hackers and makers found it useful and jumped on the bandwagon is a fortunate side effect, but wasn't a design goal of the Pi.

A very interesting point, and one on which I agree. To date, companies haven't cared much about cybersecurity because there's no fiscal benefit to spending all that money. This case may indeed change that.

No, liability insurance pays out according to the terms of the contract.

If I were writing an insurance policy to protect a company against hacking, I'd sure as heck include clauses that require the insured party to take certain steps to protect that data. *If* such terms were part of the contract, and *if* Sony didn't abide by the terms of the contract, then the insurer isn't under any obligation to pay out.

It all comes down to: what were the terms of the policy? None of us knows that, so we're all just taking WAGs on this issue.

Most liability contracts have clauses that require the insured to take certain measures to reduce their risk. If this policy does contain such clauses, and Sony didn't take those measures, it certainly stands to reason that the policy won't pay out.

It all comes down to what the contract says. Since that contract hasn't (as far as I'm aware) been released, all we can do here is guess.

Your wife may not have committed the crime the police were investigating, but she may have committed several crimes by making the recordings. If your wife didn't need a lawyer before, she likely does now.

Unfortunately, in order for that to happen, a case would have to go to trial. It appears the police departments involved have been smart enough not to let any of these cases actually go to trial.
I remain optimistic that, when one of these cases finally does make it to trial, courts will in fact interpret the law consistently with loads of case law that have found that an individual in a public space has no expectation of privacy.
Hopefully, the court will throw in there the public good that is served by videotaping law enforcement officials in the line of duty as well. But I'm not as confident in that one actually happening.